Slight s/h TW

"What's this?" Clay took the cd as it was ejected from the music player.

"That's mine," 10 year old Tommy tried to take it back but Clay held it just out of reach. "Give it back!"

"Why do you have this," Clay demanded as Tommy just kept trying to take it back.

"Please give it back, Clay," Tommy begged, "It's the only thing I have left of my family."

"You're living in my house, anything here is mine," Clay said, his grip faltering for a second as Tommy jumped up, desperately trying to get it back. To his horror the disc shattered on the ground.

"I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry Clay, I'll clean it up, just let me have the other-" Tommy said, he immediately dropped to the ground and tried to scoop up the pieces of, to him, the priceless disc.

"Look what you've done," Clay knelt down beside him, "now give me the other one before this happens again."

"Okay, okay fine," Tommy pulled out two more from his bag and handed them over, seeing them broken would be worse than this. "Those are all I have, I swear."

"See, that wasn't too hard," Clay held the discs and walked back to the door of Tommy's room. "Thank you, Tommy."

As soon as Clay left Tommy reached into his bag and pulled out a fourth disc, he had to hide it. He felt along the floor boards, there was a trick to tell a loose one from the others. Tommy took the pocket knife of his and used it to pry the floorboard off. There was a small compartment he could safely hide things in, he carefully placed the disc in and replaced the floorboard, making sure it didn't look tampered with. Once done he moved to clean up the broken disc, wincing as he cut himself on the shards.

"Tommy," someone said and he looked around for the source, started to feel dizzy and the world around him faded. "Tommy are you alright?" It was Tubbo. Shooting up when he saw Tubbo, Tommy scrambled back.

"It's okay," Tubbo said, wrapping his arms around Tommy, hugging him tightly. Tommy struggled to get away, but soon he stopped and let out a sigh. When was the last time he had been hugged like this? His body shook as he started to sob, letting out all the feelings he'd been hiding. Tubbo rubbed his back, letting Tommy know that he was there for him, that someone cared for him.

"I'm sorry," Tommy muttered.

"Me too," Tubbo said, finally letting go. "I should have told you everything from the beginning, not just a half truth."

"Well everyone's got their secrets," Tommy said, looking down at his hands. "Especially me." Slowly, he pulled up one sleeve revealing small scar lines covering his arm in even rows.

"Holy Ravaa, did Clay do this?" Tubbo said, Tommy shook his head, more tears coming down his cheeks. "Why?"

"I thought I deserved it," Tommy whispered, he had never told anyone, yet felt like Tubbo deserved to know. This was the one secret he had, and finally telling someone he had grown to trust despite everything, felt reliving.

"Well you don't, okay?" Tubbo said, "And you need to stop starving yourself." Tommy's stomach let out a loud growl in agreement.

"Okay," he nodded.

Tubbo smiled and looked at the clothes lying on the bed next to them. "I found some of Wilbur's old clothes if you want to wear those. If not, Eret might have something more your style."

"Honestly I'm just happy to have clean clothes to wear," Tommy said, as he looked at Tubbo then the bedroom door.

"Oh, right," Tubbo said, standing up and leaving Tommy alone.

"How's he doing," Eret asked as she was preparing some rice and vegetables. "And does he realize how long he's been sleeping?"

"Uh, not yet," Tubbo said. "He had a nightmare, but other than that he's fine."

"Alright, what do you think we should do?" He said. The apartment's built in phone rang, Eret went over and picked it up. After talking for a bit Eret sighed then turned to Tubbo. "We have to hide Tommy, Clay decided to pay a surprise visit."

"Okay," Tubbo went back into where Tommy was and opened the closet. "Get in and don't ask questions."

"What?! No of course I'm going to ask questions," Tommy said as Tubbo dragged him over. "What is going on?"

"Clay, we have to hide you," That's all it took for Tommy to sit down in the closet. Tubbo took the pillow and blankets and covered Tommy with them. Tubbo came out as Eret opened the door from Clay.

"You have company?" Clay said, looking over their shoulder to see all the food she had prepared on the table.

"Hi," Tubbo said with a smile, making Clay frown.

"Then you know about Tommy," Clay said.

"What about him?" Eret said.

"I don't like talking about it," Tubbo muttered just loud enough for Clay to hear.

"He ran away, I'm checking everyone's places to make sure he didn't hide anywhere," Clay said. "But if you haven't heard about it then you won't have any problem with me looking around."

"You're going to get a warrant from Sam if I say no," Eret sighed as Clay folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Very well, I have nothing to hide, Clay."

Tubbo watched carefully as Clay slowly made his way to the room where Tommy was. As he opened the closet Tommy's heart hammered as he held his breath. It felt like forever before Clay moved away, he glanced back as Tommy coughed. Tubbo coughed louder to try and cover it up then smiled at Clay. He left the room and went back to the front door where Eret still stood.

"Thank you for letting me look around, now I have to go find a replacement for Tommy." Clay said, Tubbo let out a sigh when he shut the door.

"He got so close, I'm going to grab Tommy now," Tubbo said. Tommy didn't move when Tubbo pulled off the blankets.

"He-he was right there," Tommy's bandaged hands shook and he hugged his knees. "How did he not know? How didn't he see?"

"It's okay, he's gone now," Tubbo said.

"Part of me wanted to go to him, to go back to my brother." Tommy said, his voice barely a whisper. "Why did I want him to find me?"

"Because you still care," Eret said, kneeling down in front of him. "And no one can blame you for that."

"But everything tells me I shouldn't," Tommy said, "Everytime I think about him I just get confused."

"It's a bit late in the day and you need to eat," Eret put a hand on his knee. "It'll help clear your head."

"Yeah, yeah," He muttered, slowly standing up. "Food sounds good."

They all ate lunch together, Eret had made sure to prepare food that Tubbo could eat as well. Tommy cleared his plate multiple times, but they did notice he never asked for more unless they prompted him. As they finished eating Tommy let out a sigh, he couldn't believe how hungry he had been.

"Well it's been nice seeing you Tommy, but I'm afraid I have to go meet with Sam, I'm helping him with something," Tubbo said, getting up and heading towards the door after putting away his plate. "Sorry to leave you with the mess. Hey Tommy, meet me tomorrow morning at our usual spot."

"Kids," Eret shook their head and started to put away leftovers. Tommy leapt up to help despite his hands starting to sting, but he could deal with it. It was his problem not Eret's. "You don't have to help you know?"

"I- I want to," Tommy said, but his hands started to shake as the stinging shot up his arm and he dropped the plate, luckily nothing broke. Eret immediately made him sit down, he could clean later. They found more gauze and replaced the bandages. Scott came by later to get Tommy out of the house and give Eret some time to do his own job.

"Where are we going," Tommy asked as they walked towards the industrial area of the city.

"I have to meet with some friends to test out my latest project, so I asked another friend if they could use some help," Scott said. "And of all the people I know there's no one safer to stay with. You'll blend right in." They went into a large garage with machinery and blueprints covering the walls, tools and scrap metal spread across the floor.

"Grian! I told you to keep your work area clean, what am I going to do with you?" A man with a black mustache and hair moved his hands so the metal would rise up and move out of their way.

"You're a metalbender," Tommy said, a huge grin on his face as he marveled at the ability.

"Sorry," A voice called out from above them, who must have been Grian. "Where else am I supposed to put it?"

"I made that tool shelf for a reason," He lightly chuckled, shaking his head. "Hello there, you must be Tommy."

"I don't know who else I would be," Tommy shook his hand then blurted out. "Can you teach me metalbending?"

"Well I'm certainly going to be happy having you here," The man said. "I'm Mumbo, and I'm sure we could figure something out."

"Oh are you leaving Scott?" Grian said, jumping down and a gust of air. "Do you have a minute?"

"Not now, I'm running a bit late. We can talk later, Grian." Scott said, starting out the garage door. "I'll come back later today Tommy."

"Bye!" Tommy said, then looking at Mumbo. "I don't know how much help I will be, but I'll do what I can."

"We know a waterbender who could heal your hands," Grian said, gesturing to the bandages. "Pearl's great."

"Yeah, she's had to come over every time you hurt yourself while trying to figure out the machinery I build." Mumbo laughed, making Grian groan. "And even just building you've hurt yourself countless times."

"You've hurt yourself plenty of times as well," Grian said.

"I- don't turn this on me." Mumbo exclaimed, "I'm going to see if Pearl's home and call her."

"What are you working on," Tommy asked Grian and the young man lit up at the question.

"I'm designing a color pallet for Mumbo's next invention, he's not the greatest at making his inventions appealing." Grian stepped back to look up at the metal, paint, and wood on the space above the large door. Tommy looked up as well, he tilted his head trying to make sense of the mismash of colors and materials. Grian then grabbed him, dragging him over to another area of the garage. "But you don't care about that. This is what I'm working on."

"What is it?" Tommy tapped on the wooden and stone model of a building that looked kinda like the blender he remembered Clay had.

"Imagine something like this, built on the ocean," Grian said. "I'm still trying to figure out the best materials for it. It would allow a safe place for all the nations to meet, it wouldn't be owned by anyone and funded by all the nations. Republic City has proven to be chaotic in the past and this building would be off limits to anyone who aren't national representatives so no one could sway things one way or another."

"An embassy right?" Tommy remembered the word mentioned by Karl. "This is so cool. What have you tried already?"

"Loads of different metals and woods, but nothing is able to create a base on water and hold thousands of weight." Grian said. "But I'm sure it exists."

"Well I wish you luck," Tommy said, he saw a woman with brunette hair and wearing grey clothing with blue accents come in and greet Mumbo.

"Hi Pearl!" Grian waved, going towards her and Mumbo, Tommy following behind.

"Hello, it's good to see you boys. So what's going on?" Pearl said.

Tommy nervously laughed as he raised his hands. "Hi."

"When am I just going to come over for a friendly visit?" Pearl joked as she gently took one of Tommy's hands and took off the bandages, then did the same to the other. His hands shook as he felt Grian and Mumbo watching over his shoulder. "Oh give him some space." They stepped back a respectable distance, then Pearl pulled some water out of a water bottle she had. Tommy flinched as she surrounded his hands in the water. Slowly the cuts closed and healed, leaving only small, nearly invisible, scars.

"Woah," Tommy said, examining his hands. He slowly moved each of his fingers to find no aching pain, no shaking, they looked and felt better than ever. "Uh, thank you."

"Of course, always happy to help," Pearl smiled. "Sorry about the scars though. There's nothing I can do about that."

"That's okay," Tommy said, careful not to say he was used to them; he had enough people pitying him already. "I just wanted to help and they wanted to help me."

"Well don't just stand there, he wants to help, you guys have to have some sort of project he can help with," Pearl said, making Tommy grin at her.

"Yeah I should have something," Mumbo said.

"We always have a project going on, Pearl," Grian chuckled.

Ah yes making up for the lack of Hermits in my last mcyt story. And no I'm not dead, I actually have the next chapter finished already so that will be out next week to give me time to work on the one after that. As always I hope you enjoyed reading this.

Thank you all for reading, please vote and comment. Peace out benders and Minecrafters from around the world!